FA keen to clamp down on racism

The Football Association have vowed to adopt a 'zero tolerance' attitude towards racism after the behaviour of their own fans in Bulgaria on Friday came under scrutiny.

PUBLISHED: 09:05, Mon, Sep 5, 2011

England [PA]

The Football Association have vowed to adopt a 'zero tolerance' attitude towards racism after the behaviour of their own fans in Bulgaria on Friday came under scrutiny.

UEFA will read the reports from their match delegate on Tuesday before deciding whether to take any action against the Bulgarian Football Federation amid claims England players were racially abused during the 3-0 win in Sofia.

However, it has also been suggested England's fans were not entirely blameless and taunted their home counterparts with derogatory comments about their Romany background. The FA have not received an official complaint but accept it would be unfair to attack the Bulgarians while not paying any attention to problems their fans had caused.

Any internal investigations are made more difficult by the fact England fans were able to buy tickets for the home section immediately before Friday's game and were then admitted to the visiting area by police.

It was an understandable stewarding move, but made it far more difficult for the FA to trace who might have been misbehaving.

However, aware of the potential for a different kind of trouble on Tuesday, when England play Wales at Wembley, the FA are privately restating the need for fans to respect the opposition.

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